• The owner of a Cape Town-based travel agency has been found guilty of seven counts of theft.
• Crescenda Meyer, 50, pleaded guilty to the charges.
• The seven complainants and their husbands approached the travel agency to manage their trip to Zanzibar only to discover the bookings were not made.

The owner of a Cape Town-based travel agency was found guilty of seven counts of theft in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.

Crescenda Meyer, 50, operated the agency named Style Breakaway Travel in Cape Town.

In 2018, seven women from Gauteng and their husbands requested the travel agency to manage their travel arrangements to Zanzibar.

"Meyer provided the group with itineraries and invoices, and the group made payments separately. Meyer took the money and borrowed it to her boyfriend," the North Gauteng regional spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lumka Mahanjana, said in a statement on Thursday.

The seven women were complainants in the case. 

No booking

The group, however, arrived at the airport for departure only to discover the bookings were never made.

"The group reported the matter to the police and Meyer was arrested in Cape Town in June 2019," Mahanjana added.

Meyer pleaded guilty to charges of theft.

Prosecutor advocate Patrick Tinyiko Nkuna said he was happy with the conviction as it would restore public confidence.

Meyer is due back in court on 3 December for sentencing.